Why Jesus Broke the Law

Jesus purposely broke the laws of his day. (By laws, I mean religious statutes.) Why?

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
Matthew 12 1-13

Why did He do this?
First, He was showing us that He's God. As God, He could do as he pleased. This drove the Pharisees crazy!
I also think he meant to show us that we have a bad habit of making the LAWS more important than the PEOPLE they’re meant for. He didn't break laws haphazardly or selfishly. He always did something good. He fed and healed, and saved. Isn't that MORE IMPORTANT than the laws themselves?
Are the laws still important? Some are, I think. Some don't fit our society, and some are just plain unnecessary.

Take leprosy, for instance. (Leviticus 13:4) Nowadays it’s called Hansen’s disease, it’s treatable, and - to my knowledge - no one follows the biblical statutes of keeping people with leprosy separated from the general population. To me, some laws were clearly meant for the time they were written.

Or how about this favorite? Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. Leviticus 19:27 I just don't get it. I know there are Orthodox Jews who abide by this law, but I don't see the point of it, and I've never attempted to learn more.

So, are Biblical laws aplicable to us? I believe some are. The ten commandments still make great sense to me, and the "Golden rule" (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) pretty much sums everything else up neatly. "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Hmmm... If we just attempted to follow this rule more closely, maybe the others would fall into place.
Maybe sometimes it’s left to us to decide. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us now. Maybe, as with Jesus, we're capable of knowing when a law is fitting and when it's best to break it for the greater good. Not alone, of course, but with God's guidance. We need to spend time in prayer and we need to gain wisdom through studying the Bible.

Peace, Love, and Wisdom